Tuesday 23 August 2016

POEM TO MY GRANDSON ON HIS FIRST BIRTHDAY

YOU ARE ONE YEAR OLD TODAY!

You peer into your mother’s amber eyes, rocked
in your father’s muscle, feel their deepest love, and start to grow.
Suckling and sleeping; dreams like clouds cross your countenance,
you whimper, frown and smile.
In your crib; you stare at the morning light bouncing off miles of old Thames flow creating waves on a ceiling flickering like a black and white movie.

Out in your buggy; poodles, clowns and bears act out their sky stories.
Sycamores scatter their autumn leaves, robins chirp, aeroplanes fly high.
You feel the chill of coming winter on your ruby cheeks,
and smell the odour of a season changing, and so are you.

You rub your fist on Tadcu’s stubble, pull off the Elder’s specs,
explore new textures of rough, bristle, hard, the joy of rustling paper,
contrasting the silky warm nectar of your own milky way.

You socialise with your chums; Elliot, Rufus, Maia and others from NCT.
You are a regular at Starfish Swim, Bumps and Babies, Storytime,
Baby Music and Babbling Babies.

You’re a real Music Monkey. You open your mouth, pull back your tongue and find your voice. Like an archer you project a tune cross the room on a whale-bone scale, drum a beat. Granj repeats and reflects your notes.
Our raw duet sears the quiet-still of a river mews.

You sit up straight in your high chair; you eat Weetabix, sweet potato mash, yoghurt and finger-food. When you’re done you shake your head exclaiming like De Gaulle to the British wanting entry to the Common Market, ‘Non,non, non!’  

You can kick a ball, hold a spoon, play the xylophone, lay out your toys and knock them down. At night time the tooth fairy wakens you with gifts of two and two more little pearls.

Spring and early summer come; the world is warming.
You stand up and are on the move; you walk with a helping hand.
You crawl backwards a bit, then fast forward like Popeye’s Pee Wee on a mission; opening cupboard doors, turning keys, closing books, pulling stuff from shelves, and laughing.

You watch the world and smile until the world turns round,
and the world smiles back.

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY,JOE!



9 August 2016

A Granj Poem (2)